John is a 25 year old student at the IDC, Israel. Just like most other students his age, John moved to Tel Aviv to be closer to the IDC. As part of the change, moving from a quiet kibbutz to a large city, John has had to adapt to the vibrant, loud city life. From jazz jam sessions by street performers, the sounds of customers at the nearby coffee-shop to the rush hour traffic sounds and constant car horns, John finds himself constantly tired and agitated unable to concentrate during class. John’s good friend Lihi told him that the Soundscape application that creates and shows maps of sounds and emotions on a city map might be able to help him.

Feeling encouraged by this, John decides to try Soundscape, and after installing the application he starts documenting the sounds he hears and consciously linking them to the emotions he feels throughout the day. In the morning commute to the IDC he records the sound of the approaching bus, while waiting for his ride, tagging the bus sound as “annoying”. The information is immediately displayed on his personal map, coloring that area with the color he selected to represent negative emotions. Later that afternoon, while sitting at the park near his apartment John records the birds chirping, tagging these sounds as “soothing”. The next day he tags a street musician playing a saxophone with his emotional response “happy”. All of this information is accumulated and displayed on the map, coloring the areas of the map in colors representing positive emotions.

After using the application for several weeks, John looks at the map and sees that the area near the park, next to his apartment constantly evokes positive feelings. He understands that this area provides a place where he can relax and study effectively, and decides that from now on he will go study there whenever possible, and buys earplugs to use when going to sleep. A week later John notices that he is a lot more relaxed and successful in his coursework.